How to Use Social Media to Drive Small Business Growth in the Garage Door Industry
Love it or hate it, it is hard to deny the power social media holds for small businesses. With proper use, social media can increase visibility, build brand awareness, and ultimately, lead to business growth. For those with limited personal use of social media, using social media for your business may seem like an unattainable challenge, but it doesn’t have to be! According to Forbes, 77% of small businesses connect with their customers on social media.
Potential customers turn to social media to research businesses, read reviews, and seek help. By neglecting your social media presence, you may be missing out on a large customer group. Using social media to promote your business, product offerings, completed services, and more, gives your customers insight into who you are and the quality of work you provide.
Let’s dive into a few tips on how to get started on your social media journey to drive your small business growth and establish yourself as a community expert in your industry.
Define Your Goals, Set Your Expectations
Before diving into social media, it is crucial to define your goals and desired outcomes. Are you looking to generate leads, increase sales, enhance customer engagement, or establish thought leadership within your local community and beyond? Clear goals will guide your social media strategy and ensure you measure success effectively. Set realistic expectations for yourself and your business. Understanding how much time you can commit to creating content, posting, and monitoring comments will affect how quickly you scale your social media presence. Evaluate the day-to-day questions and comments you hear from customers and use that as a guide.
Join the Right Platforms
Not all social media platforms are created equal. For the garage door industry, platforms like Facebook and Instagram tend to be the top choices. Whether you are showing finished installations, new and in-stock products, or community outreach initiatives, Facebook and Instagram are great due to their visual nature. Joining local Facebook groups is a unique opportunity to answer community questions, highlight your niche knowledge, and establish yourself as the go-to, local expert. LinkedIn can also be valuable for networking and B2B opportunities, such as staying up to date with your supplier of choice, SSC. Research where your customers spend their time and focus your efforts on building your business profile on those platforms.
Business accounts and profiles unlock greater insights compared to a personal account, so be sure to take the time to properly set up each account. There are a few steps you will need to take on each platform, but once you do, it is simple to manage and update.
Create Content and Begin Posting
Once you have created your business profiles on your chosen social media platforms, the fun can begin! Prioritize high-quality images and videos with engaging captions. Some content ideas include displaying your finished installations, before-and-after transformations, and team member introductions. Educational content such as maintenance tips for homeowners will continue to position your business as the community expert on all things garage doors.
Need Content Ideas? Reshare SSC’s posts to show your expertise by working with an industry-leading supplier. By resharing a post with your commentary, you show that you are knowledgeable and provide your customers with the highest-quality products and solutions.
Monitoring your comment section to respond to any comments with reviews, questions or concerns is just as important as publishing the content. By engaging with your followers, you establish that you care for their engagement and appreciate their positive sentiments. Avoid responding to any potential negativity with added negativity. It will only reflect poorly on your business and deter potential customers from wanting to do business with you. Instead, try to provide a solution or additional contact information to take the conversation offline.
Measure and Adjust
Monitor the performance of your posts and engagement efforts using the analytics and insights provided by each platform. While larger organizations may opt to use post-scheduling platforms with in-depth reporting, the analytics provided by each platform will sufficiently guide any adjustments you need to make as you scale your digital efforts. Track metrics like followers, engagement rates, link clicks, and more. Use this data to refine your content and posting strategy. It may take weeks or months of testing added content ideas, posting times, and engagement efforts, but you will eventually learn the digital behaviors of your audience and customers to curate the content they want most.
Network and Connect with Your Community
As a small business, you understand your community better than anyone else, because you are the community! Social media brings networking and community outreach to life in a digital landscape. As mentioned above, joining Facebook groups local to your business, and interacting with members seeking information relevant to your business expertise is a great way to establish yourself as the go-to for anything garage door-related. It is also a helpful tool to stay aware of community events, fellow small business updates, and volunteer opportunities your business and employees can participate in. Networking will strengthen your ties to residents and show that your small business is committed to growing with the community.
What to Avoid
The internet – and social media in particular – welcomes thoughts and opinions from any and every perspective. No matter who you are or what you post, you are not immune to negativity. While you may feel vindicated initially, by responding to negative comments in an equally negative and unprofessional manner, you present your business as such. Responding respectfully and helpfully shows the commentator – and your followers – that you take your customer service seriously and want to remedy whatever the issue may be.
In most cases, it is wise to avoid hot-button topics that do not pertain to your business, such as politics or religious posts. That is not to say you can’t share your personal thoughts on your personal page, although you may want to keep in mind that you may be viewed as the face of your business. Avoid posting negative comments about competitors or community members and stick to sharing business-related content.
It’s Time to Get Started
And there you have it! Building a social media presence is an exciting way to expand your business and community involvement. By organizing your goals from the start, you will set yourself up for success with realistic expectations. Leveraging social media and its ability to connect individuals with businesses and service providers is a fantastic way to scale your customer base. And remember, have fun with it! While it is important to remain professional, engaging, and upbeat content will excite your customers and keep you top of mind.
Check out our collection of articles to scale your business with SSC.
